The Relation of Undergraduate to 
Post-Graduate Curricula. 



AN ADDRKSS 



READ BEFORE THE 



National Educational Association, 



AT 



Saratoga, July i2Th, 1892. 



By WILLIAM PEPPER, M. D., LL D., 

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



PHILADELPHIA: 

ALLEN, LANE & SCOTT'S PRINTING HOUSE, 

Nos. 229, 231, and 233 South Fifth Street. 

1892. 



The Relation of Undergraduate to 
Post-Graduate Curricula. 



AN ADDRKSS 



READ BEFORE THE 



National Educational Association, 



AT 



Saratoga, July i2TH, 1892. 



By WILUAM pepper, M. D., LL D., 

l'^ O UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



PHILADELPHIA: 

ALLEN, LANE & SCOTT'S PRINTING HOUSE, 

Nos. 229, 231, and 233 South Fifth Street. 

1892. 






P. 

Roland 1?'. Fallm«f 
tIJa'O! 



RELATION OF UNDERGRADUATE TO 
POST-GRADUATE CURRICULA. 



Read before the National Educational Association 
AT Saratoga, July i2TH, 1892, 

By 
WILLIAM PEPPER, M. D., LL. D., 

University of Pennsylvania. 



In replying to the question of your President as to the 
subject of my remarks to you this evening, I fear that I 
selected the particular question of the " relations between 
undergraduate and post-graduate curricula," rather because it 
interests me so deeply at the present time than because I 
have anything new or important to submit to you upon the 
topic. But in reality, we seem to have reached a point in 
the development of our college and university work at which 
this problem forces itself upon us more urgently than ever 
before. As is the case with many others of our great educa- 
tional questions, the data for the solution of this one are 
probably not yet adequately at hand. It is altogether likely 
that various solutions may be found, or, at least, that for 
some years to come interesting experiments will be con- 
ducted along various lines. The mere fact that widespread 
attention is being given from an university standpoint to the 
courses of study in our professional schools marks a distinct 
and important advance in our educational position. 

(3) 



I presume that the immense changes which have been 
made in the curriculum of our American colleges during the 
past twenty years have been almost wholly without reference 
to post-graduate or professional courses properly so called. 

These changes have for the most part consisted in the 
marked increase in the requirements demanded for admission 
to college, in the introduction of considerable numbers of new 
branches to the lists of subjects taught in the four undergrad- 
uate years, and in the adoption of more thorough and exact- 
ing methods of instruction in each branch. There has been, 
as a necessary consequence, a marked increase in the ratio of 
the teaching force to the number of students taught, and in 
the amount expended by the college for each degree earned 
in course. The average age at entrance to college has ad- 
vanced two full years in the last quarter of a century. The 
opportunities for high attainment and the incentives thereto 
have been multiplied, and with this greater maturity on 
the part of the students there has come an elevation of 
the grade of scholarship, and an improvement in the tone 
and dignity of undergraduate college life. 

The development of the free elective and of the group 
elective systems would have been inevitable as a result of the 
overcrowding of the roster. But other causes have contrib- 
uted to produce the result. The gratifying advance in the 
status of the teaching profession has been closely connected 
with the reduction in the number of hours required per week 
from each instructor; and with the advance in professorial 
salaries attainable as the result of the greater wealth of col- 
leges and of increasing competition for successful teachers. 
So long as the average college professor was overworked and 
underpaid to the extent that prevailed a score of years ago, 
his influence was necessarily restricted. It speaks eloquently 
for the force and devotion of our elder teachers that in spite 
of such grave disadvantages they raised so high the standard 
of their calling, and impressed so deeply upon their students 
and associates the lessons of their self-consecrated lives. But 
with the return of a measure of leisure, and with the enjoy- 
ment of more liberal facilities for study and investigation, the 



college professor has become a vigorous and progressive stu- 
dent and a frequent and successful author. His relations to 
society, to his students, and to his special subject have under- 
gone great changes. His methods of instruction have felt the 
inspiration of the freer and fresher intellectual life enjoyed by 
himself. His students get more out of him, and in turn he 
gets more out of them. In every live college in America to- 
day it is safe to assert that each hour in the roster stands for 
a greater reality and thoroughness of intellectual work on the 
part of teacher and student than has ever before been secured 
here. With such a state of affairs, new subjects clamoring for 
admission to the curriculum, each subject claiming more 
hours and more earnest application, more force of instructors 
and wealth of illustration, the introduction of some privilege 
of election between studies became inevitable. 

At the same time no less inevitably there appeared the 
desire on the part of the more progressive teachers and of 
the more earnest students for an extension of study beyond 
the possible limits of the undergraduate course. We have 
thus seen within a few years the rapid development of post- 
graduate studies as a feature of our American college system, 
a feature whose importance was certainly not recognized at 
first, and whose relations with undergraduate work are still 
far from being clearly defined. In most institutions there 
was little or no endowment available for the support of 
such advanced work. It encroached upon the time of the 
ablest teachers, who alone could conduct it. The fees of 
the few students who sought it formed no adequate com- 
pensation. It is not strange that at first it met with no 
warm encouragement, and that the attempt was made to 
crowd the advanced work back into the already overcrowded 
undergraduate curriculum. 

Up to this very recent stage the nearest approach to a 
fully developed university that was made by even the most 
highly organized among our colleges was in the co-existence 
of a vigorous undergraduate department with one or more 
professional schools which owed their privileges to the same 
charter and were nominally under the control of the same 



board of trustees, but which in reahty had no more to do 
with the college than if they had been wholly independ- 
ent institutions. The trouble was aggravated by the fact 
that such professional schools were nearly, if not quite 
always, managed in the interest of the faculty. In many 
cases it was known that the profits were out of all propor- 
tion to the duties performed by the professors, and it was 
more than suspected that the standard of education was 
deliberately kept down to favor a larger attendance of stu- 
dents. It is not strange that popular enthusiasm and benev- 
olence did not go out towards that aspect of university work. 
Nor is it strange that when the college department of such 
an institution enriched its curriculum, elevated its standard at 
entrance and all along the line, and later projected a post- 
graduate department under a so-called faculty of philosophy, 
but little concern should have been felt for the effect such 
changes might have upon its relations with its own semi- 
detached medical or law school. 

Yet, as a matter of fact, during these same eventful twenty 
years the tender consciences of medical and law faculties were 
beginning to prick uneasily at the flagrant disparity between 
their standards and those of other countries. A few of the 
stronger schools bravely incurred the risk of prolonging the 
course of study, exacting examinations at entrance and at 
the close of each term, and increasing the number of sub- 
jects taught. The wild race for cheap and easy diplomas 
went on and these schools suffered seriously for several 
years. Their classes were greatly reduced ; their faculties did 
double labor for half pay. But, with few exceptions, they 
did not falter, and the tide soon turned. 

The graduates under the improved educational methods 
immediately demonstrated their superiority, and carried off 
all the prizes available. Now as ever, one may safely assume 
that the American public will choose, and will cheerfully pay 
for the best product, so soon as convinced of its superior ex- 
cellence. In a few years the success of the higher grade 
schools of medicine and of law became greater than it had 
ever been with lower standards. A strong revulsion of 



7 

feeling occurred in favor of thorough, honest, and adequate 
professional training, and it was not long before those who 
had doubted the possibility of exacting three years of six 
months' study began to plan for four years of eight or nine 
months each. Let us consider briefly what this implies in 
the case of medical study. I speak of this more fully, be- 
cause it happens at present to be of the more immediate and 
urgent importance. Twenty-five years ago an American 
medical education meant the attendance upon two sessions of 
five or six months' duration, the instruction consisting of seven 
courses of didactic lectures, which were repeated annually, 
and a limited number of medical and surgical clinics. The 
faculty comprised from four to seven professors, all engaged 
in the practice of their profession, and expecting to receive 
the larger share of their remuneration from the widespread 
advertisement of their prominent position and from their cor- 
dial relations with their graduates, who, indeed, may well 
have reciprocated the indulgent favors shown them at their 
final examinations. The only equipment necessary was a 
building, with one room big enough to hold the swelling 
classes ; if possible, it should be conveniently accessible to a 
hospital. Laboratories there were none, excepting the dis- 
secting-room. The apparatus was most meagre ; and a library 
would have been regarded as a needless luxury. 

It will give some idea of the strenuous efforts that have 
been made to equip this one branch of professional education 
when I state that when the University of Pennsylvania in- 
augurates an obligatory four-year course of medical study in 
1893 there will have been expended for the requisite build- 
ings (including the Medical Hall, the Hospital, the Chemical 
Laboratory, the Laboratory of Hygiene, the Wistar Institute 
of Anatomy, and the Laboratory of Biology) over 1^850,000, 
without counting the value of ground and equipment, which 
could not be estimated at less than ^250,000 ; that the annual 
cost of maintenance, without including a single professorial 
salary, will amount to ^ 1 1 5,000, and that the staff of instructors 
will number between eighty-five and ninety. It is evident that 
this means a serious stroke of work, and that the schools 



which will stand together on this advanced plane count confi- 
dently upon the support of the most intelligent and highly- 
educated portion of the community. It is evident they must 
begin to compete vigorously for endowment, and that they 
will apply to the generous public for funds to endow profes- 
sorships and fellowships, and to maintain costly laboratories 
(for we should spend several times as much in running a labor- 
atory as will go to the teachers connected with it), with no 
less weighty reason than now support the appeals for our 
colleges. Within a year there will be half a dozen great 
schools offering facilities in medical education, almost, if not 
quite, equal to those obtainable abroad. This four-year 
obligatory course will be carefully graded ; the first two years 
will be devoted to the fundamental branches, the latter two 
years, and especially the last year, should be so largely clin- 
ical in its character that it will be equivalent to a term as 
interne in a hospital. The principle of election will be in- 
troduced in the last year ; a certain number of hours will be 
laid down, and then a certain number of additional hours 
must be made by choosing out of a list of special subjects 
offered as electives. Inducements of the most weighty nature 
will be offered to lead students who have the means, and 
particularly those who would fit themselves as teachers or in- 
vestigators, to remain over a fifth year, and to devote this 
added time to work in the fully-equipped laboratories, the 
hospital wards, and the extensive libraries. 

As may be gathered from the above statement, it has been 
found possible everywhere to interest the generous public in 
the endowment of professional schools just so soon as it is 
made clear that the school is conducted in behalf of science 
and the community and not of the members of its faculty. 
It must not be supposed that I would imply that medical 
professors were sinners beyond all the rest that dwelt in col- 
lege land in these days. Human nature is wonderfully 
uniform. They did but what we all should do under similar 
conditions. There was absolutely no restraining authority on 
the part of the State or of Boards of Trustees. There was an 
immense continent being opened up and sparsely settled ; the 



demand for medical men was unprecedented ; neither time 
nor facilities could be had for turning out the needed thou- 
sands with thorough training; half-baked loaves were gladly 
taken by those who otherwise must have fed on patent pills. 
The case was just as bad with the supply of teachers. What 
proportion of that great army had even the rudiments of the 
science of education ? It remains true that until each State 
of the Union shall enact some wholesome legislation to protect 
the lives of its citizens from the malpractice of incompetent 
doctors, and the minds of its children from the malpractice of 
incompetent teachers, there will be abundant supplies of these 
commodities. It is easy to argue that we may not hope to 
supply every ^^500 place with a man with a ;^5000 equipment. 
But in fact it is precisely in those small and inaccessible places, 
where the incumbent is thrown upon his own resources, and 
where the counsel of colleagues and the opportunities for self- 
improvement are hard to obtain, that we need the serv- 
ices of men who have had thorough and practical education. 
It cannot be expected that as students they will all have 
been able to pay their own way through a long and 
costly course in college and in professional school. The 
time has come when the public and the State must hear 
and heed the demand for the endowment of the higher 
education, and especially for the establishment of great 
numbers of fellowships in schools of medicine, schools of 
pedagogy, schools of law, so that earnest students may com- 
plete their preparation for their life work. 

In the last report of the Bureau of Education (Washing- 
ton, 1 891) the statistics for the year 1888-89 show that in 
three hundred and fifty-four colleges and universities, with 
86,996 students, there Avere but 11 1 fellowships endowed, 581 
scholarships established by the State, and 4588 scholarships 
established by private funds. In thirty-two schools of science 
endowed by the National Land Grant, with 9621 students, 
there were 9 fellowships ; 2976 scholarships established by the 
State, and 207 scholarships established by private funds. In 
the remaining thirty-two schools of science not endowed by 
the National Land Grant, with 7716 students, there were 20 



lO 

fellowships, 50 State scholarships, and 93 scholarships en- 
dowed from private sources. In these three great classes of 
institutions for higher education, with grounds and buildings 
then estimated at ^64,898,319, and productive funds reported 
at ^^76,487, 973, and total annual income from investments, 
from State or municipal aid, or from tuition fees, of ^10,170,- 
485, and with benefactions for that year of ^4,839,851, the 
number of endowed fellowships available for post-graduate 
students would seem to have been only 140, although the 
total number of resident graduates is reported as 1358. 

On turning to professional schools, we find in one hundred 
and forty-one schools of theology, with 6989 students, that 
the number who had received a degree in letters or in science 
was 1453 (20.8%), and the number of endowed scholarships 
was 584. The total income was ^959,654, and the benefac- 
tions for that year had been ^630,402. 

In fifty-two schools of law, with 3906 students, the number 
who had received a degree in letters or science was 829 
(21,2%), and the number of endowed scholarships was 26. 
The total income was only ^55,589, of which ^46,164 was from 
fees of students, and no benefactions were reported. It is 
needless to comment upon the low state of equipment and 
endowment revealed by these figures. 

In one hundred and fifteen schools of medicine, including 
ninety-two regular, nine eclectic, and fourteen homoeopathic, 
with 14,066 students, the number who had received a degree 
in letters or science was 1378 (or g.8%), and the number of 
scholarships was 219. The value of buildings and grounds 
is reported at ^3,356,618; the amount of productive funds, 
$248,000; the total income, $486,990, of which $390,361 was 
from fees of students ; the benefactions for the year had been 
$104,343. During the years 1888 and 1889 there were 12,898 
degrees in course conferred, of which only 121 were Ph. D. 

In one hundred and twenty-nine public normal schools, with 
20,622 students of the science and art of teaching, and in 
forty-two private normal schools, with 4487 students, it does 
not appear that there were any endowed scholarships or 
fellowships. 



II 



I come now to what seems a point of extreme importance. 
It will be readily inferred from the above figures that, in 
spite of the magnificent promise of the last few years — a 
promise which surely will be more than kept — there is no 
practically conceivable amount of benefactions which will 
enable the bulk of these students to accomplish the desir- 
able purpose of securing a baccalaureate degree before en- 
tering on their professional studies so long as the comple- 
tion of their college course occupies them until the close 
of their twenty-second year. John Fiske, in his Outlines 
of Cosmic Philosophy, has some fine passages on the influ- 
ence of the lengthening of the time of caring for chil- 
dren, upon the development of the family, and of the 
lengthening of the period of youthful mental plasticity 
upon the ability of a new generation to improve upon 
the ideas and customs of its predecessors. But this proc- 
ess must be a very slow one ; and the honest merchant 
or farmer who would fain give his ambitious child the best 
equipment for his profession will draw from it small com- 
fort in his efforts to support that child up to the age of 
twenty-five or twenty-six years. Although I have spoken 
of the medical profession chiefly, it must be remembered 
that the preparation needed for the highest success, or even 
for good work, in very many callings is now so extensive 
and minute as to constitute a veritable professional educa- 
tion. This is so, of course, in the case of theology and of 
law. Is it not practically the same as regards pedagogy, 
journalism, chemistry, engineering, architecture, literature ? 
It is assuredly the case that to-day all who aspire to be 
well equipped for any of these avocations desire, and, were 
it attainable, would insist upon a post-graduate course in 
the branches specially related to the profession of their 
choice. Of course, great num.bers of the seven thousand 
graduates"^^ who received their degrees in letters or science 
last month will enter at once upon work in some of the 

* There were sixty-four hundred and seventy-five degrees in letters, 
science, and philosophy conferred by American colleges in 1888-89. 



12 

professions which are not yet protected by the requirement 
of a special additional course of instruction. Many others 
will be forced to satisfy themselves in their choice of a 
professional school with those whose diplomas can be most 
readily won in the shortest time. Many of us can attest 
this from our personal experience, but the fact is confirmed 
by the small percentage of the students of medicine, law, 
and theology who, as already shown, have received pre- 
vious degrees in letters or in science. 

No one questions the importance of previous academic 
training to every student of these professions. The higher the 
standard of the professional school is raised the more evident 
does the need of a higher entrance examination become. 
We would gladly insist upon the degree of B. A. or B. S. as 
a pre-requisite for admission. But in practice the significant 
fact has been observed, and especially in medical schools, 
where the recent advances in standard have been more 
marked than in other professional schools, that as the course 
has been lengthened and the curriculum rendered more rich 
and difficult, the proportion of students holding degrees in 
letters or in science has tended to decline. It cannot be 
doubted that if the four-year obligatory course of medi- 
cal study which will speedily be enforced at the leading 
schools of the country were to be associated with the require- 
ment of a baccalaureate degree for admission, there would 
not be a single institution that could stand the strain with 
their existing inadequate endowment. Whatever entrance 
examination may be enacted will presumably be dealt with 
in most cases as a matter for cramming, rather than be met, 
as it should be, by the presentation of a suitable degree or 
certificate won in a properly adjusted course of undergradu- 
ate study. Very much the same thing exists in regard to the 
law schools, where, however, the case is further complicated 
by the fact that the routine of the lawyer's office and the Bar 
examination offers in most States an additional avenue of en- 
trance into the legal profession. The truth is, as indicated 
above, that all the changes and advances and prolongations 
of the undereraduate curriculum have been without reference 



13 

to the effect upon these great branches of post-graduate 
study. 

But the dilTficulty which has been for some years conspicu- 
ous as regards these branches is coming to be felt keenly as 
regards others, such as pedagogy, architecture, engineering, 
the science of administration and finance, and the like. The 
recognition of an actual need called into existence schools of 
science, and their unprecedented success has forced the col- 
leges to reconsider their curriculum. As the requirements for 
the profession of chemist, of architect, of engineer have been 
successively advanced, it has become clear that a typical edu- 
cation for any student intending to pursue one of these pro- 
fessions would be, just as in the case of medicine or of law 
or of theology, a good college course followed by two or three 
years in a post-graduate professional school. It is not nec- 
essary to consider the question here as to the propriety of a 
single baccalaureate degree B. A., or of several, such as B. S. 
and Ph. B. in addition. The decision has come to hinsce al- 
most upon the single item of Greek. Most people now 
believe that the disciplinary value of courses in science, with 
a fair proportion of letters, is equivalent to that of courses in 
letters with a fair proportion of science. Nor can it be 
doubted, I think, that each of the branches above mentioned 
demand expansion into a highly-equipped post-graduate pro- 
fessional school. Nay, more ; I think it will soon be con- 
ceded that each of these schools — medicine, law, theology, 
pedagogy, architecture, art, social and political science, litera- 
ture — embrace more than one subject which should be recog- 
nized in the strictly university course leading to the doctorate 
of philosophy.^ 

When scientific courses were first opened in colleges, in 
competition with the pre-existing literary courses, the grade 
was so much lower that they attracted not only the students 
who intended a serious preparation for their profession, but 
many others who chose them only on account of their 

* For instance, at Johns Hopkins pathology, and at the University of 
Pennsylvania hygiene, have been so recognized. 



H 

easiness. As the standard of scientific education has been 
steadily advanced literary studies are being more and more 
crowded out from these scientific courses, and we are wit- 
nessing the development of professional schools of technol- 
ogy as integral parts of the undergraduate departments 
of our universities. Within a few days I have listened to 
the earnest appeal of Professor Shaler, Dean of the Law- 
rence Scientific School at Harvard, for a larger recognition 
and development of these professional scientific courses in 
the college department of that university. At the Univer- 
sity of Pennsylvania we tried for fifteen years to conduct 
the courses in the Towne Scientific School from a univer- 
sity—or rather from a non-technological standpoint — but 
it has been found impossible to evade the difficulties and 
defects of that position, and now they are fully equipped 
and conducted as true technological courses. Each technical 
course covers four years and leads to the degree of B, S. 
in architecture, chemistry, civil engineering, mechanical en- 
gineering, and electrical engineering respectively. Gradu- 
ates of these courses who have shown marked progress in 
their profession and have submitted a satisfactory thesis may 
receive the degree of Master of Science, together with, the 
professional degree appropriate to the course pursued. At 
the same time a scientific course covering five years is con- 
ducted, the first two years devoted to general literary and 
scientific study, the last three years chiefly to technical work 
in the various professional branches. At the end of the 
senior year the general degree of B. S. is given, and at the 
end of the post-senior year the degree of Master of Science. 
The professional degrees may be conferred upon Masters of 
Science of two years' standing who have made satisfactory 
progress in their professions and have presented an acceptable 
thesis. 

The effort to provide for the wants of earnest and valu- 
able students, who cannot postpone entirely the preparation 
for their profession until after the completion of their 
undergraduate course, is leading in the same way to the in- 
trusion into the B. A. and B. S. courses of subjects of the 



15 

most diverse character which are clearly portions of post- 
graduate true University work. At the same time, the grow- 
ing demands of each branch of professional study for more 
thorough, advanced and prolonged work will lead to the es- 
tablishment of numerous and varied post-graduate schools 
whose curricula cannot be adjusted economically to that of 
the B. A. or B, S. course, since its demands are so great as 
to make it increasingly difificult for the student to take a full 
college course prior to entrance upon his professional studies. 
It seems inevitable that this process should go on, and go on 
rapidly, if the age of admission to college continues as high as 
at present, and if the requirements for the B. A. degree are 
made as of late, more and more exacting. Of course there are 
colleges and colleges — several hundreds of them, and of all 
degrees of strength and soundness. It is quite possible that 
one or more may maintain such a standard and continue to 
draw adequate numbers of students. There is much to be said, 
however, in favor of uniformity of educational requirements. 
There is wide scope for superior excellence in the greater de- 
grees of thoroughness with which they are exacted. And 
looking at the subject from the standpoint of the in- 
terests of the whole country, I have not been able to resist 
the conclusion, the reasons for which are here merely glanced 
at in a desultory and defective fashion, that it would be bet- 
ter for the future of our university education if the age of 
admission to college were to be lowered decidely, and if the 
B. A. degree was made to represent a definite stage of true 
college education attainable by good students of not more 
than nineteen or twenty years of age. I believe firmly, more- 
over, that with the establishment of proper relations between 
the college and the secondary school, a result which would 
be rendered infinitely easier by an approach to uniformity and 
simplicity in the entrance examinations and curricula of our 
colleges, it would be found possible to send students up to 
college at an age decidely lower than at present, and with 
even better preparation than can now be secured as a 
rule. There would go with this, as an inseparable corollary, 
the development of a group of vigorous, highly-equipped 



i6 

post-graduate schools, with curricula of two, three, or four 
years' duration according to the subjects involved. As an es- 
sential to admission would be exacted the B. A, or B. S. degree 
or an equivalent preparation ; and in consequence there would 
be a harmonious and economical adjustment of instruction in 
the undergraduate and post-graduate courses. The post-grad- 
uate schools would confer the appropriate professional de- 
grees or the degree of Ph. D. according to the faculty in which 
studies were pursued, and the co-ordination of this system of 
schools would constitute the university in the full sense of 
that term. 

It is obvious that we in America are developing a great 
national system of college and university education. It may 
be too early to predict what its leading features will be. The 
entire absence of governmental control makes it all the more 
important that frequent and full discussion shall be held upon 
all the important questions involved. One thing that may 
be assumed is that it will not be a mere imitation of the 
system of any other country, whether France, England, or 
Germany. At the same time it would seem likely that the 
general plan which in Germany has led to such brilliant 
results may present more features adapted to our conditions 
than are to be found in the educational systems of other 
countries. All are familiar with the organization of the 
gymnasium and the realschule, and without assuming that 
the courses of instruction therein provided, either under 
the former regulations or as recently modified, would be 
most desirable as a college curriculum for us, it is impor- 
tant to observe how completely the difficulties to which I 
have already alluded are there avoided. In general the 
boy enters the gymnasium or the realschule at the age of 
nine years, and the course in each is arranged to occupy 
nine years. By the more liberal conditions established by the 
recent official decrees, there is a distinct approach to a com- 
mon type, as shown by the fewer hours devoted to classical 
studies (especially Greek) in the gymnasium, and by the cor- 
responding increase in the amount of time devoted to the 
natural sciences and the mother tongue. The right to confer 



17 

the certificate of maturity (admitting to the university) now 
pertains not only to the gymnasium, but to both of the two 

schools into which the former rcalschule is now divided the 

real-gymnasium and the ober-realschule. The gymnasial cer- 
tificate, however, still carries the higher distinction, and is the 
only one which admits to all faculties of the university. We 
see here a proof that the German system is plastic, and that it 
can adapt itself to the established claims of new educational 
opinions. The fact that the certificate of the gymnasium, or 
the real-gymnasium, or even the ober-realschule (though in 
the case of this latter only to certain courses), admits to the 
university without further examination, shows how thorough 
is the adjustment of the different stages of education, and 
how effectively and economically the time available can be 
disposed of. It results, then, that the student can enter the 
university at from eighteen to twenty years, either by special 
examination or on certificate, and that he at once begins the 
special line of study adapted to his future career. Through- 
out the gymnasial course the fundamental principle is the 
giving of a liberal training, and there is declared opposition 
against the introduction of professional studies of any kind, 
and even against the giving of a professional turn to instruc- 
tion in any subject. The importance of this principle as 
helping to secure the broadening and strengthening eflect of 
education upon the mind at this stage of its development 
cannot be overestimated. Yet, with all this, the degree of 
Ph. D. can be attained in three years' study in the university, 
or by the age of twenty-one to twenty-three. The courses in 
theology and law are of the same length ; while even that in 
medicine, which is the longest, and occupies four or five 
years, can be completed, with the State's examination for 
license to practice and with or without the doctor's degree, by 
the age of twenty-three to twenty-five years. 

The entire educational system of the country, and this in- 
cludes Austria as well as Germany, is thus directed to secure 
thorough liberal training in letters or science, followed by 
thorough professional study, and yet is so arranged as to per- 
mit the student to enter all branches of professional life or the 



higher employments of the State at a reasonably early age. 
Practically the same result is secured in France, where, for 
instance, the candidate for the degree of Doctor of Medicine 
must possess the degree of Bachelier es lettres, corresponding 
about to the certificate of maturity (Abiturienten-Zeugniss of 
the German Gymnasia), and in addition must possess the 
Baccalaureat es Sciences as regards mathematics and natural 
sciences. In spite of this very thorough preparatory educa- 
tion, and of the fact that the required course of medical study 
is four years, of ten months each, the license to practice can 
usually be secured by the age of twenty-four years. In 
France also, therefore, the system is coherent and secures 
effective results with economy of time and labor. 

In England, on the other hand, a struggle, similar in some 
respects to our own, seems pending over this very question of 
the relation of the medical to the undergraduate curriculum. 
The demand for more thorough instruction in natural science 
and the clinical branches has led to a conviction that the 
medical curriculum must be prolonged to five years ; and the 
General Medical Council of Great Britain has accordingly 
passed resolutions that all students of medicine who matricu- 
late after January ist, 1892, shall pursue a five-year graded 
course of study. Before entering upon this course there must 
be passed a preliminary examination in English, in Latin, in 
mathematics (including arithmetic, algebra, and the first three 
books of Euclid), in the elements of dynamics, and in two op- 
tional subjects chosen from the following : Greek, French, 
German, higher mathematics, natural philosophy, logic, and 
moral philosophy. 

The new medical curriculum ordains only a limited amount 
of instruction in botany, natural history, physics, and chemis- 
try, and it is evident that the above preliminary examination 
is scarcely equal to that required for admission to the fresh- 
man class of our stronger American colleges. At the same time, 
in a report presented to the Board of the Faculty of Medicine of 
Oxford University, and communicated to my friend, Dr. Ord, 
of London, by Sir Henry Acland, the principle is reaffirmed 
that no candidate should be admitted to the first examination 



19 

for the M. B. degree of Oxford until he has passed all the 
examinations required for the degree of B. A. It seems to 
me apparent that, just as with us, the whole bearing and influ- 
ence of this new legislation will be to still further divorce 
professional from college education, and to still further reduce 
the proportion of those who bring up to the professional 
studies a degree or certificate attesting thorough previous 
education. 

The question of time seems to me to enter so largely into 
the problem that even though we advance the requirements 
for admission to our schools of medicine, of law, of theology, 
of pedagogy, of political science, as we should, and as we must, 
we shall not secure the great desideratum of more general 
attendance at college, so long as the requirements for admis- 
sion to college and the college curriculum are such as to 
make the age at graduation from twenty-two to twenty-four 
years. 

We shall rather, I fear, tend to make a larger and larger 
proportion of students depend upon the secondary school or 
upon special cramming to prepare directly for the entrance 
examination to the various professional schools; a result 
clearly, as it seems to me, to the disadvantage of the secondary 
school, the college, the professional school, and the student. 
There are, it would appear, but two alternatives — ^ either a 
general restoration of the B. A. degree to its old signification 
and value, or else a continuance of the process of modifying 
the college curriculum, which has set in so vigorously, with 
the view of adapting it to the increasing requirements of the 
post-graduate curricula. I have already expressed my pref- 
erence for the former of these courses ; but this would be a 
slow process, and the requirements of the case are, in various 
directions, urgent. Pending more full study of the question, 
it will be interesting to note how the various expedients that 
are to be tried will work. For instance, at the University of 
Pennsylvania the adoption of the obligatory four-year course 
of medical study has induced the trustees and the college 
faculty of that institution to provide a special elective group 
in biology and natural science, covering junior and senior 



20 

years, wliich may be chosen by those who have entered either 
for B. A. or for B. S. A student who pursues successfully this 
elective course will be admitted to the second year of the 
medical school. Even better than this, there has been ar- 
ranged a graded five-year course which may be elected at the 
close of sophomore year, so that thus also the baccalaureate 
degree and the medical degree may be earned in seven years. 
In this really admirably combined biological and medical 
course there are offered advantages not surpassed, if equaled, 
by the new five-year English curriculum or by that of either 
the German or the French universities. In effect, indeed, it 
is not unlike the provision in Germany, where the student, 
who has won the gymnasial certificate of maturity, and pro- 
poses to take the medical course in the university, passes at 
first into the philosophical faculty to study zoology, mineral- 
ogy, botany, physics and chemistry, anatomy and physiology ; 
and at the close of the second year, passes the tentainen pJiys- 
icum, after which the final two years are devoted wholly to 
technical medical branches. 

The advantages of the methods adopted by the University 
of Pennsylvania are obvious, and they are very considerable. 
They are open, however, to the serious objection that they 
still further complicate the undergraduate curriculum and still 
further introduce into it the professional element. They are 
open to a further practical objection. Such an arrangement 
may be excellent where there are exceptionally strong ad- 
vantages for the biological and natural science studies ; but it 
is difficult to see how it can meet the wishes or promote the 
interests of other colleges. It may induce a limited number 
of students to leave their colleges at the end of sophomore 
year so as to take advantage of one or the other of the elect- 
ive courses above described, but this were a result which 
would seem undesirable. 

I do, indeed, venture to hope that this action of the Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania, particularly if, as I trust to see, sim- 
ilar action shall be taken also by other leading universities 
with strong medical schools, will have the effect of inducing 
colleges to introduce such full biological courses in the 



21 



last two years of their curriculum as will lead many students 
to take their baccalaureate degree, since it would secure ad- 
mission to advanced standing in their professional course and 
save one full year in the acquisition of the doctorate. But I 
fear that for the most part the immediate effect of the ad- 
vanced standard of medical education now established by a 
number of the leading schools will be to deter students from 
going to college, and to induce them to prepare specially for 
the examination which will admit directly to the professional 
school. 

I know that the entrance examination, even to our best 
medical schools, is shamefully low. Personally I advocate 
getting the prolonged medical course, with its ample practi- 
cal and laboratory instruction, strongly established before 
loading the experiment down at the other end. The absence 
of endowment and the destructive competition among the 
absurdly numerous medical schools make me apprehensive. 
But either at once or in a .couple of years the entrance ex- 
amination must be decidedly advanced. The most advanced 
requirement demanded to-day is, I presume, that called for 
by Harvard College, which includes only the following sub- 
jects : — 

1. English. — Every candidate will be required to write, leg- 
ibly and correctly, an original English composition of not less 
than two hundred words, and also to write English prose 
from dictation. 

2. Latin. — The translation of easy Latin prose. 

3. Physics.~K competent knowledge of physics (such as 
may be obtained from Gage's Elements of Physics). 

4. Elective Stibjcct. — Each candidate must pass an ex- 
amination in any one of the following subjects: French, 
German, the elements of algebra or of plane geometry, 
botany. 

By the recent action of the Regents of the University of 
the State of New York, it is directed " that hereafter they 
will require their academic diploma (which Mr. Secretary 
Dewey defines 'as meaning a good, thorough high-school 
course') or its equivalent as a minimum of general preliminary 



22 

education from any candidate for any degree conferred on 
examination by the university." 

But even when all the leading colleges shall have come up 
to, or shall, as I trust to see before five years are over, have 
passed the standard thus set, I am convinced we shall not 
have lessened in the least the difificulties of those students 
who would gladly take both college and university courses, 
but are hindered by the exalted requirements for the B. A. 
degree. 

The expedient recently adopted at Columbia College 
seems to me neither more hopeful nor less objectionable.- 
As President Low writes : " At the end of the junior year 
our seniors take all their studies under one or the other of 
the university faculties, including those that give a profes- 
sional education as well as those that do not. By this system 
a student must still give four years of study for our B. A. 
degree, but for such students as combine with the college 
course a professional training, the total time is shortened by 
one year." 

The ultimate effect of this arrangement upon both under- 
graduate and post-graduate curricula in Columbia cannot be 
foretold ; doubtless there are the strongest reasons for expect- 
ing it to be excellent, or the plan would not have been ad- 
opted by the distinguished president and faculties of that 
institution. I can readily imagine also that as regards a 
single university, the curriculum of the first three years 
might be so arranged as to enable such a plan as the above 
to work Avell. But if, as would be inferred from statements 
published, though not official, it were proposed to admit 
students from other colleges at the close of their junior year 
to full standing in the senior class at Columbia, with the 
privilege of securing the B. A. degree in one year, and, for in- 
stance, M. D. in three years more, the arrangement would seem 
open to grave criticism from the standpoint both of Columbia 
and of the general college system of the country. It were 
indecorous to discuss more fully arrangements which have 
not been promulgated ofificially in full detail; and equally 
indecorous to more than allude to the proposition advanced 
LofC. 



23 

at Harvard by our distinguished colleague, President Eliot, 
since it has not yet been embodied in legislation by that 
university. 

I feel that no apology is needed for the introduction of this 
subject. Even with the imperfect statement I have made it 
challenges your serious attention. There are said to have 
been almost twenty thousand students in medical schools 
during the last college year; less than nine per cent, had bac- 
calaureate degrees. The claims of this great army of students 
deserve consideration. Precisely the same problems are 
arising with regard to our law students, and our students of 
theology, of pedagogy, of architecture, of engineering, and of 
other professions. 

So many experiments have been tried with the undergrad- 
uate curriculum that we hear from every side demands of the 
most extraordinary boldness. 

If the process which, most unfortunately as it seems to me, 
has been pursued with constantly accelerating speed for twenty 
years be continued much longer, it is to be feared that the 
undergraduate college curriculum will be hopelessly distorted 
and perverted, and will become a medley of college and 
university instruction, divorced from the true university 
schools, and yet wholly inadequate for any class of the com- 
munity except for those estimable gentlemen of independent 
means, who find it unnecessary to fit themselves for any 
serious pursuit in life by thorough education in any single 
branch. 

It seems doubtful if any of the expedients suggested to 
avoid the urgent problems forced upon us in consequence of 
the present state of the undergraduate curriculum are of 
more than local and temporary value. It remains to be seen 
whether a wiser course towards a solution of more permanent 
and general efficiency may not be found in concerted efforts 
on the part of university, college, and secondary school in 
favor of a restoration of the baccalaureate degree to a position 
of greater stability and more in accordance with its original 
historic signification. The great anniversary year, 1893, will 
find us with the victory over the huge material forces of this 



24 

continent practically won ; it will find us with our political 
federation strongly, and, as we devotedly trust, indissolubly 
cemented ; but we must recognize that our greatest battles 
are still to be fought : between sound doctrine and specious 
error; between the wise and humane equities of a true 
democracy, and the blind ignorance or the blatant folly which 
would array labor against capital and masses against classes ; 
between the forces that make for and those that make against 
truth and order and progress. The issues are portentous. 
Naught but education, thorough, free, universal, can win 
for us. 

No less than we needed political federation do we need 
the federation of our educational forces from the primary 
school to the university — their federation and their loyal, 
effective co-operation. 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 



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